Trump's Blitzkrieg
One of the ways Germany’s World War II “Blitzkrieg” (the Germans did not use the term) worked was by combining speed with multiple thrusts. Speed cut inside an enemy’s reaction time while multiple thrusts caused him to spread his defending forces so thin that none were effective. Of the multiple thrusts, one was the Schwerpunkt, the bid for a decision, but the enemy could not tell which one. More, the Germans could and did switch the Schwerpunkt as battlefield developments required.
This perfectly describes what President Trump is doing to the Establishment. Each day sees at least one initiative the Establishment regards with horror. Before it can react to one, it is hit with another. How serious the President is cannot be determined, so the Establishment must try to put maximum effort against each. But it only has so much muscle, and while it tries to concentrate on one of the President’s initiatives, it is hit by another and another and another. If one does get blocked, the President merely shifts his Shwerpunkt to something else that is meeting only weak resistance. The Establishment’s face is frozen in the Munch “Scream.”
Some of President Trump’s initiatives take a deeper dive into Blitzkrieg. Just as the German Army confronted the French with realities it could not wish away, such as major defects in its doctrine and training, so the President’s ideas confront the Blob, the foreign policy Establishment, with facts it had avoided. A good example is his proposal for the U.S. to take over and rebuild the Gaza strip, re-settling its current population elsewhere. This is unlikely to happen, because the only place to put Gaza’s inhabitants is in the West Bank, something Israel will not permit. But now some carefully ignored facts are out in the open. First, the rebuilding of Gaza, if it ever happens, will take decades. WIll Gaza’s current population live in tents for ten years, twenty years, who knows how long, without safe water, sanitation, adequate food, etc? Second, so long as the current Gaza population remains, Israel will not have won the war. The IDF has said publicly that it cannot attain Mr. Netanyahu’s foolishly proclaimed war goals of completely destroying Hamas. So long as Gaza’s current population stays in Gaza, so will Hamas. Third, the “two-state solution” to the broader Palestinian problem won’t happen because Israel will not agree to it. All of this brings us no closer to a general settlement, for which at present there is no possibility, but it does force the Blob to face realities it would rather not and, at the same time, confront its own inadequacies.
Some of President Trump’s actions receive little attention but have major consequences, just like the well-chosen Shwerpunkt. One was reported in the February 8-9 Wall Street Journal. A 25-year old staffer for the DOGE, Marko Elez, was accused of making some “racist” posts. He did not call for bringing back slavery or putting all blacks in concentration camps. According to the Journal, he had said, “I just want a eugenic immigration policy” and “Repeal the Civil Rights Act.” As cultural Marxism demands, he was forced to resign. But then Vice President Vance stepped in and gave cultural Marxism’s “canceling” game a punch in the nose. He said, reasonably, “I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life. . . So I say bring him back.” President Trump supported his Vice President, as did Elon.
This should be the first of the death by one thousand cuts for “canceling.” It sets a precedent that tells the cultural Marxists, “We won’t live in fear anymore. America has freedom of thought and expression again. You can disagree with us, but you cannot destroy us for disagreeing with you.”
This single act by the President and Vice President will need to be repeated many times before freedom of speech is fully restored. But a key precedent has been set and a basis for lawsuits by the “cancelled” against whatever institution forced them out has been established.
All of this leaves the Establishment like the French in 1940, always reacting too late and with too little. My advice to President Trump is, “keep up the tempo!”